Mayor Matt Appelbaum wants the city to have full control over whether 500 acres north of Boulder ever gets developed and how.

City Council candidate Mary Young, now a Boulder Planning Board member, wants to preserve the system of "four-body review" that governs future development of the Area III Planning Reserve.

And "Greatful Fred" Smith, a laborer who is on disability, said he doesn't know very much about the technical issues, but he's not a big fan of development.

Which entity or entities should control the future of the Planning Area Reserve was one of the few areas of disagreement among three of the 11 Boulder City Council candidates at a forum Friday held by PLAN-Boulder County.

The forum was moderated by Jeff McWhirter, a PLAN board member and community activist opposed to the development of the Hogan-Pancost property in southeast Boulder. Other candidates are expected to take part in two additional PLAN-Boulder County forums, scheduled for noon next Friday and Sept. 20.

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Unsurprisingly, given the host, the questions focused on land use, planning and open space concerns.

All three candidates support the Civic Area Master Plan recently approved by the City Council to guide the development of the area along Boulder Creek between Ninth and 17th streets to create an expanded park, reduce flood risk and encourage the construction of new cultural amenities.

"Greatful Fred" Smith
(provided photo)

Transportation has been and will remain a key regional issue on which the city will try to exert influence. Noting that 40 percent of car trips are less than two miles, McWhirter asked how the candidates would encourage Boulder residents to drive less.

Appelbaum said it will take a combination of carrots, in the form of improved bike and pedestrian infrastructure and transit service, and sticks, in the form of reduced or more expensive parking.

"You can do communitywide EcoPass if we can figure out a way to make it cost-effective, but you still need good transit service," he said. "You give people alternatives, but you also make it harder for them not to use the alternatives, with things like parking fees, though I think you need to be really careful about doing that before you have viable alternatives in place."

Young, who works with Via, formerly known as Special Transit, said she is a big supporter of a communitywide EcoPass program and believes it would greatly increase the number of people taking the bus. However, the city needs to develop transit programs that meet the needs of those with limited mobility and tight schedules, such as seniors and people who work multiple jobs.

Smith said he agreed with the ideas of the other two.

On open space, Smith said he has concerns about two sales tax extensions that will be on the ballot in November. They ask voters to gradually move money away from open space to roads and the general fund because open space is nearing the end of its acquisition phase.

Matt Appelbaum
(CLIFF GRASSMICK)

"I don't think you should start robbing pots of money to support the general fund, when you have parcels of land we could buy that will be here for a thousand years," he said. "There are other ideas for getting the city more money, not that any of them will actually work."

Smith was referring to ideas he supports, such as a city income tax, that would require changes to state law.

Young said she supports the tax proposals developed by the City Council because they preserve open space's bonding capacity for the future. However, she believes open space may need additional acquisition capacity to support urban agriculture, including through the purchase of a conservation easement on Longs Garden.

Appelbaum said he also supports the purchase of the easement, but he sees community gardens as a parks program more than an open space program.

One of the more distinct areas of disagreement was the planning reserve. The 500 acres north of Jay Road and east of U.S. 36 lie outside Boulder's city limits (Area I) and Boulder's growth boundary (Area II), the area designated for future annexation.

A longstanding intergovernmental agreement gives the City Council, the Boulder County commissioners, the city Planning Board and the county Planning Commission control over whether anything gets built there.

Some city officials, including Appelbaum, want to change that agreement so the city has full control over decision-making in that area.

Young said she strongly supports the status quo.

"It has served us well for decades," she said. "I hear talk of putting housing there, but there are still lots of areas for housing, a lot of surface parking and strip malls that could be redeveloped."

Appelbaum said times have changed.

"It has served us well, but the world has changed," he said. "Everything is surrounded by open space, including the planning reserve. Every other city in the county has control over its growth boundary."

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